katofunanori

A ship never needs a critical part so urgently that it must be delivered by helicopter. It is always just delivered at the next port of call, or by a boat if the vessel is at anchor.

Most basic repairs are done by the crew. Specialized repair is done by service engineers that represent the manufacturer of the equipment or a licensed company.

Some larger ship owners/tech managers have a “riding crew” that handle some of the repairs.

In many countries the pay is untaxed. You can also sometimes get bonuses for rejoining a ship if you are one of the top 4 officers/engineers. Many ship owners/managers want well performing crew to come back so they will incentivize with either a cash bonus or some extra perks for the family (insurance, for example). Some top officers can even bring their wife and kids on board, but fewer and fewer companies are allowing this.

You can get some pretty short contracts on dredgers. Or try to requalify yourself to offshore - those can be as short as a month (one month on, one month off).

What was your cook’s nationality? My general ranking is: Indian, Filipino, Russian (the worst). I use to rank Filipino cooks higher (especially since they usually cook a much larger variety) but developed a taste for Indian food later on.

Among vessel types, I rank them: oil rig, seismic vessel, FPSO, OSV (the higher the DP class, the better the food), oil tanker, container ship, chemical tanker, bulk carrier.

With a seaman’s book, you practically get visa-free access to all countries and some other visas are arranged by the office so you don’t have to worry about it. Seafarers can also get special “shore leave” visas/passes for a short visit to shore during a port call.

The benefit of hiring a seafarer from EU or US or other top countries who have visa free travel is HEAVILY outweighed by the savings of hiring a seafarer from a third world country who doesn’t have visa free access all over and just arranging their visa when needed. Plus, the office is usually only liable for the visa required during joining and relieving - everything in between is up to the seafarers themselves.

Seafarers are also often booked on special fares on airplanes (SEMN booking code) and so check-in agents/customs know in advance what to ask for (seaman’s book, “ok to board” letter from agent, etc).